-
The Supreme Court of India protects their rights to their land and forests

Photo courtesy Survival

The Government of India had initially set
aside an area for the Jarawa but the size of this reserve gradually reduced
as more of their land came under construction for roads and settling
migrants from the mainland – forcing the Jarawa deeper into the forest –
into smaller areas.

Survival - a worldwide organisation
supporting tribal peoples - focused on trying to get the road through Jarawa
land closed and the settlers removed. In May 2002, the Indian Supreme Court
in a landmark decision ordered the road closed, the settlers be removed from
Jarawa land, and banned all logging. Survival is now trying to ensure the
implementation of the court order

The Jarawa, who live in The
Andaman Islands belonging to India, are the First Citizens of their habitat
– they are the original Forest beings – people who understand and
respect their environment as no other ‘progressive’ and ‘civilized’
group does. Their numbers are fast dwindling and with them will die the
superior knowledge of their flora and fauna, their spiritual traditions,
rituals, ceremonies, their social order, their expertise in indigenous
medicine, and of course their language.

The Jarawa are one of the four
tribes in the Andamans – a group of islands [belonging to India] in the
Indian Ocean. The Jarawa are hunters and gatherers and live on the two large
islands. They number between 200-400 – a large number when compared to the
28 members of ‘Great Andamanese’ tribe [near extinction as a result of
their exposure to diseases such as influenza, measles and syphilis during
the time that British administered the islands], and 100 Onge who work on
local plantations. The ‘Sentinelese’ also number about 100.

The Government of India had
initially set aside an area for the Jarawa but the size of this reserve
gradually reduced as more of their land came under construction for roads
and settling migrants from the mainland – forcing the Jarawa deeper into
the forest – into smaller areas. They have survived waves of migrants and
colonists but fallen prey to Government policies which looked upon them as
‘primitive’ and in dire need of ‘development’. The development
policy of the Government meant encroaching on their traditional hunting
grounds, clearing the forests to settle thousands of migrants , relocating
the indigenous people to ‘settlements’, splitting communities that had
always lived together, and introducing them to an alien way of life,
language and religion. Such changes have impacted their physical and mental
health. Contact with non-indigenous people exposed these groups to diseases
to which they had no resistance. An epidemic of measles in 1999 wiped away
ten percent of the Jarawa population. [There are only 300-400 Jarawas ].
Alcoholism, obesity, diabetes, and depression, are other ailments, which are
now appearing among those who have been ‘relocated’ to ‘civilisation’.

The main threat to the Jarawa
was the building of a road through their lands and forest in 1970. Survival
- a worldwide organisation supporting tribal peoples - focused on trying to
get the road through Jarawa land closed and the settlers removed. In May
2002, the Indian Supreme Court in a landmark decision ordered the road
closed, the settlers be removed from Jarawa land, and banned all logging.
Survival is now trying to ensure the implementation of the court order.

Most indigenous societies are
highly evolved groups, that have, over thousands of years, developed a
symbiotic relationship with their environment and live in close harmony with
nature. Land is sacred. Jarawa, who have lived in their rainforest home
forever, hunt wild pigs, monitor lizards, fish and gather fruits and
berries. Their lives are synchronised with their environment. More they do
not need.

Indigenous tribes are our
heritage to be treasured and it remains our responsibility to help them
sustain themselves in environments they have always lived in and not turn
them into objects of tourist curiosity.